Why drone swarms will buzz to the forefront in the new Pentagon budget

When the Defense Department unveils its budget for 2017 on Tuesday, expect a buzzing noise in the background. Unmanned drone swarms appear to be one of the big winners in Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter’s plans for the future.

The Pentagon chief tipped his hand that drone swarms could get a funding boost in a speech last week, predicting they could be used in “all sorts of ways and in multiple ways.” Organizations like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Naval Research have been investigating the possibility for years, and Carter said that another Pentagon organization, the Strategic Capabilities Office, also is involved. That’s a hint: It focuses on commercial equipment that could be adopted for use by the U.S. military quickly.